And we begin again

Kitchen Redo: The wallpaper

2011-03-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

We are starting the long process of redoing our kitchen--the bane of many a home owner. It started out like this before we moved in: (Note the carpet on the floor and yellow wallpaper!)

And we made it look like this, very lived in mind you:

We want it to look like this:

Just kidding! We'd be happy with a window, but I'll settle for no wallpaper, wood floors, and lighter walls. We started the first step: the walls! Under the yellow plaid wallpaper is a red flowered wallpaper that is stuck to the drywall. It actually rips the drywall when we remove it. We are not new to this since our bedroom was similar. We used a wall paper stripper and pulled!

Now wallpaper free, we will sand and spackle to make the dry wall smooth and paint it with an oil based primer. Andy will actually do that part while I leave for a bit since the smell makes me sick. After that, we'll just have to paint. We are debating between a green kitchen,

or an orange one.

We'll keep you posted!

Have a great week!

Veggie Fried Rice Bowl, the Recipe!

2011-03-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Without further ado, the Veggie Fried Rice Bowl recipe taken from The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook by Kim O'Donnel.

Veggie Fried Rice Bowl
We've all been there: Tonight's the night you've got just 20 minutes to put dinner on the table. With some cold cooked rice on hand (make a pot the night before), you can whip up the bestest and fastest food there is. This version defies old stereotypes and delivers light, bright results, a workful of colorful veg that still have their crunch.

Note: This dish requires cold cooked rice, so plan to make ahead, at least 4 hours in advance. Chop and prep all ingredients before even thinking of turning on the wok.

Makes three or four 2 cup servings.

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 teaspoons sesame oil
2 large eggs, beaten (plan B: 1/2 cup toasted chopped cashews)
1/2 cup shallots, diced (about 2 bulbs)...we used onion
Fresh chili peppers, seeded and minced (use what works best for your heat tolerance)
1 Tablespoon minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
1 cup diced carrots (about 2 carrots) or chopped fresh green beans
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
4 cups cold cooked rice (about 1 1/3 cups uncooked rice)
1 cup mixed celery, diced, and baby bok choy, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro for garnish

Here's What You Do
1. Heat a wok or a deep skillet over high heat.
2. Place 1 Tablespoon of the vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil, and the eggs in the wok. Tilt the wok so that the eggs cover the entire surface, making it thin as a pancake. Cook for about 45 seconds; the egg will set quickly. With a thin-edged flipper or tongs, fold the egg in half and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into thin strips.
3. Add the remaining tablespoon of vegetable oil, followed by the shallots, chili pepper, and garlic and stir-fry for about 20 seconds. Add the carrots and bell pepper, lower the heat to medium, and stir-fry for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture begins to soften.
4. Add the rice and celery mixture. With a wooden spoon, break up any clumped rice as needed. Add the soy sauce and stir well, and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so. Stir in the egg strips.
5. Turn off the heat. Stir in the cilantro, if using, and drizzle the remaining 2 teaspoons of sesame oil.

Note: You may make this dish without eggs. If so, eliminate the teaspoon of sesame oil at the beginning of the recipe and proceed with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. going straight to adding vegetables and aromatics. Stir in the cashews just at the end, before serving.

Fried Rice, the healthy way

2011-02-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

I received a package in the mail the other day. I was delightfully surprised that my good friends Tiffany and Justin, all the way in DC, mailed us a cookbook! It is called The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores will Devour by Kim O'Donnel.

I was complaining to Tiffany that I needed some more protein in my diet, being a vegetarian, and how many eggs can a person eat! I was delighted to receive this little nugget of inspiration that is filled many protein packed meals.

We are going to try a handful of recipes in the next few weeks, but I really liked the Veggie Fried Rice Bowl. And it's super simple. First you heat up wok with vegetable oil and sesame oil and fry a scrambled egg in it. Then you remove the egg and cut it up for later. Then you add some great veggies like carrots, peppers, a leak, and some bok choy, or probably whatever you want. And don't forget cold rice! That's the secret. We actually had cooked brown rice a few days before just for this meal and it turned out perfect.

We added some fried tofu for some extra protein umph.

We mixed everything together.

And fed it to a hungry Amy!

It was muy excelente!

Crafty Things, Baby Style

2011-02-13T01:44:00.000-08:00

In the last year a lot of babies have come into my life. Friends and family have definitely given me oodles of ooh-and-ahh moments...and I just had to give back. I made some of these awesome gifts for these babies in my life and they are too cute not to share.

I found this great fabric cube pattern here. They don't really have a blocky look so much as a rounded cube, but they are still fun and make fantastic juggling balls! I tried to play around with the textures, colors and sounds. In addition to each side being a different fabric, in one cube I put a bell and in another I made a crinkly side. I think they also taste delicious because I'm pretty sure the first place these things went was in the mouth!

It's never too early to learn that everything has its place and every place has its thing! These fabric buckets, made from some soft flannel and an old pair of jeans, is a soft and safe place to store anything, including fabric cubes! I found the pattern here, but made it much bigger. The circumference is about 12 inches I think. It can also be used as a hiding spot for small children and cats!

And for the little niece in my life, how can you pass up a cute little pink dress? I can't! When I saw this onesie dress, I knew I had to make it. I didn't really know what I was doing, but it turned out lovely. I also made it pretty big, since babies grow fast, but also because I thought it would be a cute spring dress and I made it in the winter. Not pictured is the cute bloomers made from the bottom of the onesie I cut off.

I love crafting, but baby crafting is way more fun! I think its because everything is cuter when it's mini-sized. So what will be next?

Molded Crayons

Party Turtles

Stick Horse

Pumpkin Hat

The possibilities are endless!

Where to Begin?

2011-02-04T01:38:00.001-08:00

Its been a year since I've last updated? Where do I start?

We bought a house! It's a funky little house, but we like it.

It has great views, which we love. I'm so glad we can see the mountains and the sunset. This photo was obviously taken in the Spring. Right now we have a few feet of snow!

We've adopted a dog, Allie (she is my brothers and we have her while he is in the army).

She's pretty cute.

I became and Aunt! My brother Travis is now the proud father of a little girl named Anne.

She's a cutie and I can't wait to watch her grow up.

Andy and I took a trip this Fall to the beach to watch Justin and Tiffany get married. Beautiful all around. Congrats you two!

So that's a quick year in review! Hope to be more current as time goes on.

Were Moving Up

2010-02-05T05:08:00.000-08:00

Finally, after 3 years of living in Vermont, I got the job I came here for. It is with the Green Mountain Farm to School Program as their Education Coordinator!

I will be working with schools during and after school to increase garden education, teach children about healthy eating, and getting local food into school meals. Both Andy and I are very excited for this new change in our lives.

The job is about an hour away though, so we might be looking into moving again. We'll be going into the Northeast Kingdom, pretty much the middle of nowhere...unless you count mountain expanses, numerous lakes, and the Canadian border. We'll be far from the city, but it will be a great adventure!

I've been cheating on you

2009-12-21T04:57:00.000-08:00

I must admit, I tried out another blog location. I was unhappy with how this site was organized and how information was put on. I posted something here: http://sproutingtogether.typepad.com/blog/

I'm going to keep looking around and if I move for good, I'll let you know!

Christmas is coming so quickly! We have just two days of work left before we hit the road. We hope to be in town for a week and then go to Washington, D.C. for New Years. My very good friend has lived there for years and I haven't visited in awhile. We are getting very excited about our "vacation," but Andy's mostly excited that he doesn't have to work!

Since it is the holiday season, I wanted to give my employees (all three of them) something to say thank you. We decided to go on a weekend baking adventure for these:

After making 200 rolls, I want to eat them all! And they taste even better than they look. If you want to try them yourselves, check it out: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/

Merry Christmas my awesome Afterschool Teachers! You ROCK!!!!!

Thanksgiving a la Vegetarian

2009-11-25T04:41:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving once again and Andy and I are spending this one at home all alone. And that's okay because on Friday we will have a big Thanksgiving dinner with our house mates. They will do the turkey and stuffing and such, so Thursday for us can be anything we want it to be. While Andy could eat Thanksgiving dinner any day of the week, and green beans and cranberries are delicious, I can't do Fall side dishes two nights in a row. So, we are going totally off the books and making pasta!

When I say making pasta though, I don't mean boil some water and add boxed noodles, I mean make pasta. After the wedding we bought ourselves this beauty:

She's a beautiful pasta maker that we've used to make spaghetti, fettuccine, and lasagna from fresh made pasta dough. It isn't too complicated, but it's a two person job that takes about an hour to do. We try to make it on the weekend when we have time and energy, but Thursday seems like the perfect day to make it again. But mostly, our kitchen is so small, it's nice to have a food project that allows us both to be in there without being in the way.

I'm also making fresh ciabatta bread and we'll probably throw a freshly made tomato sauce on top. Simple, delicious, and not turkey.

Wedding Love: My Favs

2009-11-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

I know I said I'd post family and friend pics. These are my fav from the night! Enjoy :)

Wedding Love: Just Us

2009-10-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

About time! Wedding photos & stories to share!!!! It will definitely take some time to share all our photos. Today's installment: Andy & Amy.

Before the ceremony, Andy and I decided we wanted to get our photos first, then the bridal party. We wanted to see each other before the wedding, but also wanted it to be a special moment.

On the day of, the photographer was late...30 minutes late! My well tuned schedule was falling apart and Bridezilla bubbled up. That's one way to clear out the groomsmen (sorry guys). It was the, "I'm going to f*cking kill you" moment that I believe every bride is allowed to have. It hits when enough is enough, when you realize everything is out of your control, when you think the wedding could go down in flames, when you wish you could just go outside and see what was going on but you can't because you didn't want to see your soon to be husband until it was photographed! Where is the photographer! What didn't help was the 3 hours of sleep, 60 minutes of hair tugging, and an inability to eat. When she finally did arrive, Andy was outside of the barn and I was inside. I told the photog that Andy and I were ready for our pictures but we hadn't seen each other yet. It took her about 10 minutes to understand that we didn't want to just run into one another, we wanted it to be a moment...hopefully a photographed moment.

So she took some pictures of me while as we found a location for our "meeting."

Then we waited for Andy to get there and she took some pictures of my super long, incredibly awesome veil...hand made by Virginia :).

That thing didn't really want to fly like we wanted it to.

Then Andy came and he had to walk with his eyes shut towards the sound of the photographer's voice. We stood back to back (so dramatic) and we held hands while photographer took pictures.

Ahhhh, finally. I got to see Andy and it was wonderful. I think we made out for a few minutes, we kinda forgot anyone else was there. I know this is cheesy, but I missed him...we hadn't really been together for a week. This moment was the first moment where we began that journey of a lifetime together. It was magical.

I really liked having that "first look" moment with Andy, but I didn't think it needed to be as drawn out as it was. The pictures were fantastic though.

It turned out the photographer was stuck by a train, which is not uncommon at Camp Campbell Gard. I got stuck many a-times on my way to work there.

The next installment: Family & Friends

Harvest

2009-10-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

2 months since I've last been on here! Sorry about that. I'd like to take a moment and remember those lost in the month of October. This has been a very sad month for our family and friends and for us. Life is constantly changing so hold onto the moments as they come.

October is the beginning of Fall when things change, things die, things get cold and nights grow longer. Before this time of the year was called Fall or Autumn, it was called Harvest. Up here, that makes sense...expect our Harvest happens in late September and early October when we try to beat the frost. We spent an afternoon at a farm early this month picking Acorn Squash because the frost was hitting that night. There is nothing like looking at 6 acres of Squash knowing they all need to be harvested that day!

Andy and I also went to a festival of sorts at a local seed company, High Mowing Seeds...largest organic seed supplier in the nation! We explored their trial gardens, ate delicious veggies, and shared a meal cooked by chefs using local food! Umm, ummm, good. Here are some photos of that wonderful day in early Harvest!

Sunflowers of all sizes

The many gardens & Andy

And this vegetable is....(you should know this!)

Spaghetti Squash, one of our favorites

Red Kuri Squash, I like the color and it tastes good

I don't know if this is a real vegetable or herb, I'm thinking someone got bored!

This is a lemon cucumber...it is round and yellow like a lemon, but its a cuke!

Kale acting as a bush

HOT peppers

Bonus Photo: View from the top of Mt. Mansfield...not near High Mowing Seeds

Honeymoon Part 2: Quebec City

2009-08-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

I really want my wedding pictures, but we just have to keep on waiting. I'm still quite happy with the 3 I have, so I'll just keep looking at those.

Back to the honeymoon...

We left the campground freshly showered in the quarter-fed showers that lasted 5 minutes, so we felt ready as we were going to be for the big city. We hopped on the highway and headed into a French-speaking world. And we got lost which is amazingly easy to do when you can't read the highway signs and the only place they are is at the exit. We did find our way to Montmorency Falls though. It is next to Quebec City, wider than Niagara Falls, and wet. We climbed to the top and back down again.

View of Quebec City

The falls

Going down...

The cute newlyweds!

Next we went to the walled in city where our Bed and Breakfast was. It was a cute place with a great room for a good price, we highly recommend...Gite de Paris. The walled in city is so magical. Seeing the old architecture, hearing French, listening to the horses click-clop down the street and following the wall lined with cannons transported us to a far away land. We walked a lot and ate a lot and enjoyed our time there. Here's some of those images...

View from the wall

Side street in Old Quebec

Old, beautiful house

Pedestrian-Tourist Street

Castle/Expensive Hotel

"I see a ship that needs a blastin' Cap'n!"

An old French church

A votre sante!

Honeymoon Part 1: Camping

2009-08-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

We haven't gotten anymore pictures from our photographer and no pictures have been downloaded to our flickr account, so I've decided to recap our honeymoon and tell some stories.

After leaving Cincinnati and forgetting my pillows at the hotel in Cleveland (I have a pattern of leaving my pillows when I go on trips), we made the long trek back to Vermont (around 15 hours). Lake Champlain divides northern New York and Vermont and there are several ferries that can take you across the lake. Andy and I always take the northern or southern routes to avoid them, but this time we decided to take the adventure and we got there just in time for sunset. It was a great idea...except for the last 5 minutes when my motion sickness kicked in.

Once home, we unpacked, slept, repacked, and hit the road by 9 the next morning.

Oh Canada, here we come!

Apart from every sign being in French, exchanging our money and having trouble communicating with everyone outside of large city, this was the big sign we were out of America: no ice in our fountain Coke.

We drove through Quebec City...

And ended up in the wilderness.
We camped here! Actually, we camped back in the woods a bit, but you get the idea.

We slept.

We ate.

We drank.

We watched the animals eat our food! We even found half eaten chocolate in our car...I hope that little bugger isn't still in there.

It was beautiful and amazing and ended with a moose! Couldn't have asked for anything better.

The first shots

2009-08-11T18:49:00.001-07:00

Here are the first shots from our professional photog. I think she does incredible work and I am so thankful to have found her.

We were told the jump in this one. I think Andy looks like a bunny but I love how high Colin is trying to get (furthest on the left).

Us with our amazing chapel in the background. I love how the girls made it look. And the sky looks both beautiful and ominous...in a good way.
Ahhhh....it's a keeper!

These are all I've seen so far. I can't wait to see more. Keep 'em coming Sarah!

Rewind

2009-08-10T05:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a whirlwind! The past two weeks have simultaneously dragged on and zoomed by. We are glad to be home, though Andy begrudgingly left for work this morning and I am ignoring the living room still filled with boxes that have no home. So, in the name of procrastination, lets recap!

First stop: Hamilton County Courthouse

Andy had just flown in from DC where he unexpectedly had to spend the night in the airport. Poor guy hadn't slept at all...so it was the perfect time for him to sign the marriage certificate!

Filling out the forms. Did you know in Ohio, a female can get married at the age of 16 without consent of her parents or the court? If you are a male, you have to wait until you are 18.

After we got a celebratory lunch at Frische's Big Boy, Andy went to his parents for a little R&R before his Bachelor Party and I went flower picking! I wish I had more pictures of us at the farm, carrying our 5 gallon buckets, searching for the perfect flowers, counting to make sure we had 500 stems, and shooing the bugs away. But it was hot, we were sweaty, and when we were done, we wanted air conditioning and ice cream. Here are some pictures of Tiffany, my bridesmaid made florist, putting them into bouquets.

Tiffany put in some long hours for the bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages...and they were gorgeous!

Our bouquets in a cooler.

Even after everything was made, we had lots of flowers left over.

That was a lovely recap...until we meet again...

Speechless

2009-08-04T04:44:00.001-07:00

I think it will take the whole honeymoon to process our wedding day. I loved every minute of it (except the nausea and sleeplessness) and wouldn't change a thing. Thank YOU for being a part of it.

If you have photos, I would really, really love to see them. We have a flickr account if you'd like to share:

www.flickr.com

Password: august1

Here's some that I liked (thanks Becky's and Karen's camera)...

We'll be in touch after the honeymoon in Quebec City...stay tuned.

Drool

2009-07-17T05:06:00.001-07:00

Check out these pictures from the amazing wedding of the Broke-Ass Bride.

They're so dreamy...and they look so happy! I love it!

Digits

2009-07-16T05:11:00.001-07:00

In the whirlwind of wedding planning, Andy and I have reached the stage of gift making. Actually, Andy's been doing the making and I've been working on the details of the weekend and making sure everyone is in the loop that needs to be in the loop. We've also been moving (still) and painting. Our hope is to be moved in and sleeping at our new apartment by this weekend. At this rate, I don't know if that will happen...but we don't have a choice. In one week and two days I leave for Ohio!

In other news, we both got cell phones yesterday! That's right, Andy and I have rejoined the fast paced nation and attached a phone to our hips. They look like this:

Cool touch screen, loud noises, buzzing sensations. It's a fairground in our hand! Along with the new toy, we also have new numbers. So, if you know us, make sure you have our new digits!

Neglectful

2009-07-13T04:57:00.000-07:00

Andy and I have been ignoring the wedding these past few weeks. There have been lots of changes in our lives and our upcoming nuptials have had to be put on the back burner. We are getting back on track though and the help of others has really been helping.

So what have we been doing? Well, I made these hanging pictures for my good friend who is having a baby on Christmas Day. We are all so thrilled for her. I found the directions here: http://www.livingcreatively.com.au/projects/create_now_project.php?v=76

The background is in French, but I made one background in English because it's too cute. It says:

Animals are interesting creatures. They are not too dissimilar to you and I. In fact the other day while strolling through the park, I spotted a giraffe eating chocolate ice-cream. I know it sounds unbelievable but I assure you I saw it with my very own eyes! Anyway, it got me thinking about what animals like to do when they're not busy doing what animals do. Do birds write love letters in the sand? Do hippos like to read the newspaper on Sunday morning? What of the lion? Does he sing to himself as he bathes in the lake? There are so many wonderful things I love to wonder about, however one thing I know for certain is that crocodiles wear sunglasses. It's true! I saw it with my own eyes.

We have also been starting our move into the "Funky Farm House." It was left a lot dirtier than we expected, so we've been cleaning, moving some stuff, cleaning, moving some stuff, painting, moving some stuff. You get the idea and you've probably done this sort of thing before too, so you understand. I have no pictures of the inside, but this is our wonderful property.

Our tower house. That is our front door and our bedroom is in the green "tower." In between is a wood stove, a kitchen and a bathroom. Off to the right in the white building is our greenhouse and to the left is an animal farm.

On our farm we have chickens! We don't eat them though (except maybe a mean rooster).

And I like this guy. I call him the deadlocked goat. He likes to eat everything!

The owner is an amazing sculpture/artist. She makes stone walls that circle and loop. There are several on the property.

This is the view from on top of the hill looking at the barn. The barn holds the chickens, goats, sheep, and currently a pot-belled pig. Andy likes the pig. If you look closely at the tree, you'll see another art installation involving bicycles.

Inside this door house is a mound of stones that we can use to practice our own curving stone walls!

See that fence? That is literally three feet away from our patio. And that's a cow! There are sheep, goats, cows, and one llama that graze on that side of the fence. They are not a part of our farm, however, but since most of them are babies, they are really cute.

The view from our patio!

Hopefully more wedding posts will follow!

Kombucha

2009-06-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

Kombucha is the Western name for sweetened tea that has been fermented using a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). You may have seen it in the store like this:

And it is expensive!

At our local herb shop (a real shop that sells just herbs), they offered a class on how to make Kombucha and supplied us with a start-up a kit: 2 jars (since both of us did it), black tea, cheesecloth for the cover, and the culture (or SCOBY).

Here is what we did:

We took our kit home and got everything ready. The culture is the white stuff in the bowl that looks like a bunch of fat. We also had our jar and bags of black tea.

We brewed the tea in some water with dissolved sugar. When it was cooled we added more cold water and then placed the cultures in the jars with the mixture.

Here is what it looked like.

We put our jars in a semi-open place not in the kitchen (you don't want the cooking odors to change the reactions in the Kombucha). I think we need another bookshelf! Can you find the clown?

Today our first batch was ready...it only took 2 weeks. It won't take as long once we have established cultures. We strained our finished product into this fancy maple syrup bottle. Nice isn't it!

As you can see, we already drank half the bottle! We love how it tastes and have enjoyed mixing it with juice and seltzer. Our instructor also suggested mixing it with liquor...it may defeat the health benefits, but it tastes delicious!

Dress to the Nines

2009-06-17T05:07:00.001-07:00

Andy picks up his suit today...tailored, pressed and fitting nice.

And my dress is hanging in the spare room ready to be worn.

The shoes are shined and laced up.

I think we are ready!

More Trails

2009-06-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

This week we had a great time cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, working at the farm, and finishing up our invitations. We didn't have a lot of down time, but we did go on a hike. It was a short 5 mile hike round trip to the top of Mt. Elmore. There were great views of the Lamoille Valley (where we live) and both the Green Mountains (Vermont) and the White Mountains (New Hampshire).

At the top of Mt. Elmore is a fire tower, an old, scary, very tall fire tower.

While I was gripping on for dear life, I did have a nice view.

Bunch Berry on the trail

This is Balancing Rock...a glacier erratic that is resting on a small slab of rock. It seems to be in a precarious position, but it doesn't move--we tried.

We still had fun with it though :)

I have the next two weeks off of school so I'll be finishing up paperwork for this past year and planning for Summer Camp...while finishing up wedding details and getting very excited for August 1st!

Busy Week

2009-06-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, this was a busy wedding weekend for us! I found a dress (kinda important) and we both found wedding bands (also kinda important). On top of that, we also....

-Edited, printed, cut, stuffed, and stamped our wedding invitations :)

They are simple, yet exactly what we wanted.

-Bought some extra plates for our hand made vintage glassware dessert trays

We have 8 altogether. Some are two tiered and some are three. I LOVE how they turned out. This one isn't the best example, but it's the only one in Vermont.

-We started making our table lanterns

They in fact are not lanterns, but more like table tents. We will paste another layer on each side with information about dinner, table number, etc. I'm excited to see what they will look like on the tables.

-We found marker board to put in this frame

At first we wanted to make a chalk board for it and use it as a giant program at the ceremony in place of paper programs. But, when looking for a board to put behind the frame, we saw this marker board and fell in love. We had the people at Lowe's cut it to size. We have great plans for the left over too!

Whew...that's enough until next weekend!

Trip to MDI

2009-06-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

MDI: Mount Desert Island

Aka: Bar Harbor, Maine;

Acadia National Park

We've been slacking on the wedding side of things. We think about it, but we couldn't pass up a three day weekend after the snow has melted.

So, where do Vermonters go on vacation?

Maine...they have an ocean!

After setting up camp, we went to Bar Harbor, the big town on the island. It is a magical place with boats, ice cream, and lobster.

We also enjoyed looking at the ocean. They only have one sand beach in this part of Maine. The rest is rocky, granite slabs. The rocks are fun to climb on, look for tidal pools, and watch the ocean from. We even got to see a seagull drop an oyster on the rocks to crack it open. Use what you got, right?!

The next day we hiked up Cadillac Mountain. It was a 15 mile round trip from our camp site and well worth it. We went from hard wood forests to lichen covered granite tops to a carriage road built by the Rockefellers a century ago.

Once on top, the weather started to turn! We were ready for rain...bring it on!

It didn't last very long and by the time we made it back to camp, the clouds were all gone.

The following day, we climbed up a trail called the Bee Hive, named for it's shape. One side gradually goes up and the other goes straight down...literally. This shape is actually very common in this area (ME, NH, VT) and was created by the glacier movement over the granite mountains. More on that another day. This view is from the Bee Hive overlooking Sand Bar (the one sandy beach). I love how one side goes into the ocean and the other into fresh water...how interesting!

This is one of the straight down parts.

Ahhh...pitch pine and us...now back to the wedding! We can't wait to see you there!

Bike Path (a wedding-planning-break)

2009-05-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

We loaded up our car, which is awesome by the way,

and went for a bike ride in Stowe (a ski-resort town close by).

Mount Mansfield is in the background.

This stream follows most of the 5.5 mile bike path.

There was a Farmer's Market right off the path, so we stopped in for a bit.

These were cool plant markers.

It was another beautiful day in Vermont, but boy do our bottoms hurt!

No-Skeeters

2009-05-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

We don't want any of these at our wedding. We haven't been away from Cincinnati long enough to forget about the millions of mosquitoes that surround you when you walk through fields or go near ponds. Since our ceremony is in a field next to a pond, we wondered if these little blood sucking pests were going to be an issue. But do not fear, we have come up with a wonderful solution!

Introducing our solution to warding off mosquitoes....

I know it doesn't look like much yet, but give a few months. I have learned that certain flowers and herbs repel bugs of all kinds...pests, blood suckers, and creepy crawlies. My favorite memory was using Yarrow on our counter to keep the colony of ants out of our second story kitchen. We never saw the ants again...and Yarrow is so pretty.

I thought there may be a repellent that we could plant to ward off the skeeters that we could put in some planters I could bring down with me...and I was right! With Andy's research skills, we realized that Citronella is a plant, otherwise known as Lemon Grass. We also found that other common plants help to repel those pesky creatures like Lavender and Thyme. There are plenty of plants out there too, if you wanted more options. We went to the garden store and bought some seeds and planted five different kinds today: two types of Lavender, Thyme, Feverfew (pretty white flower), and Lemon Balm.

This is were they will live until they grow a few inches. This is our make-shift green house. It works for us. The Thyme is on top and the other seeds are in the plastic covered container. They need warmth to germinate, that's why the lid is on.

When they have grown, all our plants will look like this. I hope to put them in two or four larger pots together to have around the ceremony site. Those, combined with a few Citronella candles, should keep those bugs away. We'll also have some bug spray on hand just in case!

2009-04-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

We are the owners of a new car! At least new to us. It was a completely unexpected decision that was forced upon us when my Honda Civic decided to blow it's engine while driving through Cleveland on my way back to Vermont. Dam you Cleveland. Andy was wonderful and dove to met me so we could look for a new car together. It isn't what we had planned nor a car we had ever thought of purchasing, but we love it! It is rugged, it has 4-wheel drive, and is set up for satellite radio (it's still staticy and choppy where we live though).

It's our first car together!

2009-03-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Q: What does green rayon fabric and some old ties have in common?

A: Some new green ties!

Not too shabby, as long as you don't look to hard for a point at the end of the tie!

This time it was chocolate

2009-03-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

We attempted cake yet again. Using a box mix (the Super Moist variety), we added cream in place of water, some extra vanilla, and several dashes of cinnamon. Once cooled and frosted, Andy held his restraint as we let the cake "set." We learned about a smoothing technique where you place a paper towel on a frosted cake (after the frosting was dried) and rub your hand over the paper towel. This caused all the little bumps and waves to smooth out. It gives it a nice finish in the end.

Smooth Moving

It was a very delicious cake and it looked pretty too!

Fortunately for me, I don't have to make cakes any more. My friend Virginia has offered to take on that roll. So, I'll just focus on making birds and ties...

Blooms

2009-03-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

As Paper Whites are blooming in a jar on my kitchen table, I'm am thinking about my flower CSA. It was really important to Andy and I to support local farmers, so we found a farm in Cincinnati that has a flower CSA (Community Supported Agriculture: you pay for a "share" of the crop before the season starts and it turn you get the bounty throughout the season regardless of how big or little). Turner Farm is offering 250 stems of flowers for $50! The typical share picks 25 stems 10 times throughout the season...how wonderful would it be to have that many fresh bouquets in your home all summer and fall. But they are letting us pick them all, and we have two shares, at one time for the wedding! I'm excited just to wander through a flower field and pick them!

My friends are helping pick them the day before the wedding and then Tiffany, a bride's maid, is going to arrange them into my grandmother's blue mason jars for the tables. And then we'll get to make my bouquet! I think it will all look lovely. And best of all, we will be supporting a local farmer, and I love that! We found Turner Farm through Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association at http://oeffa.org/productsearch.php You can search by product or county (look at the bottom of the page). It's a great resource for Ohio for fresh food!

It's Still Winter

2009-03-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday, it was 50 degrees outside and sunny. Sunday morning, we woke up to a snow shower that left us 3 inches! Good thing we like snow. I was starting to miss it.

Mt. Mansfield from our town Sunday night

This wet and heavy snow is called sugar snow because it happens in the early spring during the maple sugaring season. The sweet maple syrup we like to eat so much comes only from the sap of the early spring maples. The nights have to be below freezing and the days must be above. The wet snow helps the tree's sap to move quickly (carrying that much needed water) when it may otherwise slow down...ummmm syrup.

Maple goodness straight from the tree

All the snow reminded me of a time not too long ago when we had so much more than 3 inches! There were several occasions where Andy, being his wonderful self, had to shovel us out before work. Twice, he had to carve stairs out of ice and snow when all the snow from our roof fell and made a wall between our cars and our front door.

Andy being cute with a shovel

Until Next winter...

The Dress Saga

2009-03-20T04:54:00.001-07:00

My dress is purchased and getting ready to be made! I never thought it would happen, I must admit. I tried on dresses at David's Bridal and liked a few of them, but I always felt like a cream puff. Then I tried on this dress from The Cotton Bride at a small boutique in Vermont and almost passed out from the sticker shock (about 12x what Andy and I had budgeted for my wedding dress). But I loved loved loved it. I felt beautiful and comfortable, despite the dress being 6 times too small. The words cream puff and marshmellow didn't come to mind at all. The best part? It's made from cotton, and yet still so elegant.

Knowing I couldn't aford even the zipper on the dress, I looked into other options. I could buy it used, but I have been on the preowned wedding dress curcuit for months now and never came across a Cotton Bride dress as they are still a fairly new designer. I considered outsourcing to China...you send them a picture and you get a dress for the low, low price of $250. But that left a bad taste in my mouth when I thought about sweat shops, young women working in a factory towns hundreds of miles away from home, and my money (however small) going to China instead of staying in the United States.

So I considered making my own with my new sewing machine (!) and this pattern with some alterations:

I'm not seamstress. The last piece of clothing I made was a tank top 8 years ago and I threw it away. My lack of confidence led me to Porshe's Place, a seamstress named Femia who adores vintage clothes. We had two weeks of conversation about the pattern, the fabric and how to make the belt, so it really feels like my dress. The order has been set, the measurements have been taken, and, with the help of friends (thank you, thank you, thank you), the bill has been paid!

Now I just need shoes and linens and dishes for the dinner and invitations and music and...

The Cake

2009-03-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Andy and I have already decided to have a dessert buffet with cookies, cupcakes, lemon bars, and whatever else people come up with. We think the fun, eclectic choices will add to the festivities. We still want a wedding cake though, mostly because it's Andy's favorite dessert (I'm not sure why, but I do know as soon as we became engaged he wanted to go to Wedding Expos so he could eat lots of cake). Plus, we need a place to put these amazing cake topper birds we want from this amazing designer, Red Light Studio!

So, our solution is for me to make a two tiered cake. We are thinking vanilla/lemon/poppyseed with a raspberry filling and vanilla frosting. Here's my first attempt:

Oliver can't stay away from anything food related.

It didn't look terrible, but it didn't look wedding-y either.

But Andy liked it, so I think I'm on on the right track.

That just means I have to make more cake!